Total Higher Education Loans

[gsmithers68]

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So how many of you chose THE over MEDLOANS and what was your reasoning? I am an incoming MS1 in the fall and I need to start looking into these different avenues. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have heard good things about THE but I am still reluctant to choose a program that isn't sponsored by the feds... it seems like MEDLOANS is a much more conservative approach to borrowing. Thoughts? Advice?

 

[Critical Mass]

I think that this exact question was recently posed and got moved to financial aid:

http://drslounge.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=406149

Maybe there's more useful answer on that thread by now.

I used Medloans but would probably recommend T. H. E. Mine are all getting consolidated with my Federal Direct Loans once I'm done anyway.

 

[gsmithers68]

Wow guess I should have used my search function 🙄

Oh well, seems like that OP is mad it got moved so maybe I am doing a service to them by reposting 🙂

To the mods: PLEASE don't move this thread... there is NO traffic that runs through the financial aid forum. If you move it this will die with no responses and no digression!

From the other thread it looks like people liked THE and had bad experiences from the MEDLOANS program and the Sallie Mae folks. However, judging from the (2) pollers people are going with MEDLOANS... Why? Anyone? Buller?

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Wow guess I should have used my search function 🙄

Oh well, seems like that OP is mad it got moved so maybe I am doing a service to them by reposting 🙂

To the mods: PLEASE don't move this thread... there is NO traffic that runs through the financial aid forum. If you move it this will die with no responses and no digression!

From the other thread it looks like people liked THE and had bad experiences from the MEDLOANS program and the Sallie Mae folks. However, judging from the (2) pollers people are going with MEDLOANS... Why? Anyone? Buller?

One suggestion -- go to Site Suggestions and Improvements at the very bottom of the main forum listings for SDN. I have a post there asking to move the financial aid forum somewhere higher on the page, so people might actually see it and use it. If more people post requesting it, maybe there's a slim chance of something happening.

You're right that it's a shame that it gets so little traffic and consequently little information sharing.

 

[Twitch]

Ended up using grad leverage. 5.8% staffs

 

[Critical Mass]

To the mods: PLEASE don't move this thread... there is NO traffic that runs through the financial aid forum. If you move it this will die with no responses and no digression!

Looks like a mod has seen your comment and decided to leave it.

Ditto on the lack of discussion in financial aid. The only time anyone posts there is if they have a question.

The same could be true for the posts that start here and end up in the lounge or all-students. I'm also clueless as to the difference between the lounge and all-students.

I've never heard of grad leverage. Anybody have a link?

 

[TMP-SMX]

Looks like a mod has seen your comment and decided to leave it.

Ditto on the lack of discussion in financial aid. The only time anyone posts there is if they have a question.

The same could be true for the posts that start here and end up in the lounge or all-students. I'm also clueless as to the difference between the lounge and all-students.

I've never heard of grad leverage. Anybody have a link?

http://www.graduateleverage.com/

 

[tkim]

I'm going to compromise - I'm sending this thread to Financial Aid, because it does belong there. But, I'm leaving a redirect marker in Pre-allo that expires in two weeks. People in Pre-allo will see the thread for two weeks before the redirect expires. It should be enough time for responses to be generated in both forums.

 

[edubbs5]

When evaluating a lender consider service, incentive, and credibility. With so many new lenders - having one with a long track record, a good and reliable repayment incentive (way to save THOUSANDS of dollars in the long run), and one that you can actually talk to a live person when you have a questions or concern. You might find that finding one is few on far between.

Regarding "federal sponsorship" - both THE and MedLoans are giving Federal student loans and are guaranteed by the federal gvmt - and unlike the Federal gvmt these lenders actually have incentives to offer where the Direct Lending program has little to no incentives... why pay more if you don't have to - especially when you can still get all the same Federal loan terms and conditions.

 

[TMP-SMX]

I was contemplating between THE, medloans, and Citi. I'm really liking THE because it is a guaranteed rate reduction unless you default. Although Citi seems to have something at the end of the loan which would save you thousands, but by that time it probably doesn't help a whole lot.

 

[MedSchoolFool]

What are THE loans? What does that stand for?

 

[Zetterberg07]

I posted a thread about this before, but I'm really considering going with bancorpsouth. They apparently give a 2% interest rate reduction at graduation (brings you down to 4.8%), which beats everything else I've seen. My only sticking point is that I've never heard of the bank before (wrong side of the country), and apparently they've never loaned to anybody at the school I'm going to. Its hard to borrow this much money from a place that neither I nor my school's financial aid office is familiar with.

 

[Zetterberg07]

What are THE loans? What does that stand for?

Total Higher Education Loans, a student loan organization.

 

[Dr JPH]

Total Higher Education Loans, a student loan organization.

Best loan company I have found.

I had multiple lenders from college through medical school...Sallie Mae to Wachovia.

THE is by far the best, most personal and (IMO) most trustworthy.

 

[bretticus]

From what I can tell, Medloans gives the best incentives (apart from apparently Bancorpsouth). You get a reduced rate during school and deferment (6.5%), any you get 1.75% off during repayment (5.05%) with ACH. I'm guessing SallieMae sucks with regard to customer service, but I'm hoping it will save me money...

 

[edubbs5]

Just be sure the read the fine print - ON TIME PAYMENTS sounds easy - but studies show only 5-10% of borrowers even get it - plus you aren't getting it from the beginning (when the balance is at its highest). Also - the most commonly missed payment... the VERY FIRST PAYMENT... if you miss that first payment.... you aren't going to get the full incentive and they may even tack on any fees or monies originally reduced.

 

[PickleLuvrrr]

I'm also debating between THE, MedLoans, and Citi right now (my undergrad loans are with Citi). It seems like THE makes it easier to get the repayment incentives, since if you miss a payment they don't make you make 24 consecutive on time payments before you get the reduction again - but is it really that hard with the other two? I mean, all you have to do is sign up for online account management/online statements before you go into repayment and make that first payment on time, right? And MedLoans is tempting because it does have the most IRRs...

 

[Guile]

So is the only reason to choose THE over Medloans because THE is easier to work with? It looks like Medloans has the best interest rate: 0.3% interst rate reduction during med school, then 1% IRR after the first on-time payment, and an additional .75% IRR when you enroll in auto-debit. So that comes out to 4.75%.

THE comes out to 5.5% after their IRR which occur when you enter repayment.

Is there a financial reason to go with THE over Medloans?

 

[PickleLuvrrr]

I think another reason people go with T.H.E. is that their repayment bonus isn't tricky like some of the other lenders. If you look at MedLoans, the second you make a late payment, you lose the 1% interest rate reduction and have to make 24 consecutive on-time payments before you get it back - that's 2 years you spend paying at a higher interest rate. You also only get one chance the earn the bonus back.

With T.H.E., you lose the bonus if you make a late payment, but you get it back as soon as your account is current again.

Now, I'm pretty on top of paying my bills and all, but I'm sure something will happen in the future that will prevent me from making on time payments every single month for 10-15 years.

Check this out to see why some loan discounts may not end up as good as they seem (also see the link in the middle of the page to Sallie Mae CEO's open letter to borrowers): http://www.finaid.org/loans/studentloandiscounts.phtml

 

[Richie Truxillo]

I've been happy with THE also. No tricks and you can always talk to a real person in customer service without getting the run around.

With T.H.E., you lose the bonus if you make a late payment, but you get it back as soon as your account is current again.

This is nice too. I personally don't have any experience with medloans so I cannot comment.

 

[blanche]

in addition to all that's been said (which i agree with), THE gives you the benefits at the START, while Medloans makes you wait 24 months. do the calculations for yourself to see what the bottom line will be after 30 yrs, for me it actually made a difference (remember: the first 24 months are when you will be accruing maximum interest, which will be capitalized at the end of eachof those years so it makes sense that a lender would want to wait 24 months before giving you any sort of benefit)

 

[Guile]

in addition to all that's been said (which i agree with), THE gives you the benefits at the START, while Medloans makes you wait 24 months. do the calculations for yourself to see what the bottom line will be after 30 yrs, for me it actually made a difference (remember: the first 24 months are when you will be accruing maximum interest, which will be capitalized at the end of eachof those years so it makes sense that a lender would want to wait 24 months before giving you any sort of benefit)

I'm not sure about in the past, but the paperwork I have says that Medloans gives you a 1% IRR at the first payment, plus .75% with auto-debit payments which is less than the total IRR with THE (1.3%). Also you accrue interest all through med school and deferment (residency, fellowship) at 6.5% with Medloans as opposed to the standard 6.8% with THE.

 

[Zetterberg07]

So is the only reason to choose THE over Medloans because THE is easier to work with? It looks like Medloans has the best interest rate: 0.3% interst rate reduction during med school, then 1% IRR after the first on-time payment, and an additional .75% IRR when you enroll in auto-debit. So that comes out to 4.75%.

THE comes out to 5.5% after their IRR which occur when you enter repayment.

Is there a financial reason to go with THE over Medloans?

My understanding was that with Medloans the .3% interest rate deduction gets rolled into the 1% deduction when you graduate, so the most deduction you are ever getting is 1.75% (so 6.8%-1.75% = 5.05% interest rate) I could be wrong about this.

 

[Guile]

My understanding was that with Medloans the .3% interest rate deduction gets rolled into the 1% deduction when you graduate, so the most deduction you are ever getting is 1.75% (so 6.8%-1.75% = 5.05% interest rate) I could be wrong about this.

This is true. I didn't understand it correctly. In repayment, your rate is 5.05%.

 

[edubbs5]

My understanding was that with Medloans the .3% interest rate deduction gets rolled into the 1% deduction when you graduate, so the most deduction you are ever getting is 1.75% (so 6.8%-1.75% = 5.05% interest rate) I could be wrong about this.

Usually the reason is the likelihood of receiving the THE benefit over Medloans. Also you don't have to meet any rigid restrictions (aka on-time payments of over 3 years). You get it from the beginning when your balance is at its highest and so many borrowers receive it. I think they have calculators you can use to see your specific savings.

 

[s786]

Usually the reason is the likelihood of receiving the THE benefit over Medloans. Also you don't have to meet any rigid restrictions (aka on-time payments of over 3 years). You get it from the beginning when your balance is at its highest and so many borrowers receive it. I think they have calculators you can use to see your specific savings.

From what I read, it looks as though Medloans is also from the beginning. But you are right about the benefit being easier to lose if you go with Medloans. Once you lose the benefit (by a late/missed payment), then you'll have to be current for 24 months to get the IRR back. With THE, you don't have to worry about that.

 

[s786]

Regarding Graduate Leverage, it looks as though they start your IRR during school and deferment. So technically for atleast 7 years, you have a rate of 5.8% while other programs (THE/MEDLOANS/etc), you have a rate of 6.8% (6.5 for MEDLOANS). When interest capitalizes at repayment, you've accumulated less interest if you go through Grad Leverage. However, starting at repayment most of the other companies have a lower rate because you will stay at 5.8%. When would it be worth it to go with lower IRR during school and deferment vs. at repayment? Does the timeframe on when you want to pay it back play a major role here? Any ideas would be much appreciated. Also, in talking to Grad Leverage, you have that same fear of losing the benefit as they don't have a THE type policy.

 

[Guile]

Regarding Graduate Leverage, it looks as though they start your IRR during school and deferment. So technically for atleast 7 years, you have a rate of 5.8% while other programs (THE/MEDLOANS/etc), you have a rate of 6.8% (6.5 for MEDLOANS). When interest capitalizes at repayment, you've accumulated less interest if you go through Grad Leverage. However, starting at repayment most of the other companies have a lower rate because you will stay at 5.8%. When would it be worth it to go with lower IRR during school and deferment vs. at repayment? Does the timeframe on when you want to pay it back play a major role here? Any ideas would be much appreciated. Also, in talking to Grad Leverage, you have that same fear of losing the benefit as they don't have a THE type policy.

You have to run the numbers using Excel or some other amortization software to see the difference. Luckily, bretticus (another member on here) has already done the legwork for you and found that Medloans is the best deal overall. He posted a spreadsheet in another thread that showed this. Grad Leverage is second best with THE trailing. This of course assumes that you stay current on your payments. If you think you'll miss one, then I would recommend THE since they seem the most lenient.

 

[johnstoner]

Total Higher Education seems to be the most favored lender on SDN. I am also a THE customer. Thought they had the best deal and customer service is really good.

 

[Cirrus83]

Well, I went with THE for my undergrad consolidation and I've been very happy with them so far (even though I'm a ***** and ended up at a higher rate because I missed the deadline for consolidating at 2.x...doh). They really do have pretty good customer service, I call em up and they answer the phone pretty quick. They made a little mistake explaining to me about how extra payments apply to which part of my loan (subsidized vs unsubsidized), but a quick phone call back to them and then over to great lakes fixed it immediately. And also there was a little confusion with the loan places I consolidated from, since THE overpays when consolidating. One of my original lenders sent me a check that I never realized I received, so I was confused why they hadn't refunded the money back to THE, while THE kept telling me it should credit into my THE account, lol.

Oh well, either way they're easy to deal with even if they don't tell you all the possible scenarios all the time, or if they're a little unsure how Great Lakes (their payment processor) handles extra payments. But the truth is that their excellent service means any glitches get smoothed over pretty easily, and in reality I probably should have checked my mail a little more thoroughly and figured out the overpayment had already been returned directly to me instead of to THE.

 

[HMS2007]

my sister used graduate leverage and got 1% discount on stafford and 1.3% discount on PLUS from day one so even while she is in school and residency they were at lower rates! i should have used them but didn't know about them...